According to Nguyen Van Quyen, head of the company’s export project board, the group is waiting for the Japanese veterinary agencies to grant the export licence.

It took two years for the firm to complete all the necessary procedures to export its poultry products to Japan, he said.

According to Viet Nam News, the biggest problem is the building of its own monitoring management programme, in line with the standards of the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Japanese veterinary organisations.

Japan is particularly interested in products originating from poultry without avian flu diseases and ingestion of antibiotics, Mr Quyen noted.

The building of a safe buffer zone is difficult, but the company has received support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the field.

The company has invested in building a chain of production with bio-safety processes and the application of advanced technology.

It expects two seed farms and three commercial ones to serve exports, in addition to six to seven manufacturing farms to meet the domestic demand.

Apart from Japan, the company has studied other markets such as Europe, Australia and Canada, Mr Quyen said.

Japan is a potential market for Vietnamese farm produce, as under the Viet Nam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, tax rates for farm produce have been reduced sharply.

In addition to this, as the proportion of agricultural production has become smaller in Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP), its import demands for farm produce have increased in recent years, the Thoi bao Tai chinh Viet Nam (Vietnam Financial Times) reported.